Just when you wondered where music’s bullocks went…
When Iggy Pop is releasing an album, you drop everything, no matter what genre or entertainment format, and you heed the call. You do not pass go. You do not collect two-hundred dollars; merely twenty is all you need for the album and a cheap pair of headphones. You cancel all plans and you rock out hard for as many days as your job will allow you to take off. Now, when that album is composed of not just the legend that is Iggy, but also Josh Homme and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age with Matt Helders of Artic Monkeys… well then. Post Pop Depession‘s contributor list reads as a recipe for a fantastic album and the fact it was recorded secretly makes it all the more intriguing.
Iggy’s iconic voice is always a welcome sound and from the start of “Break into Your Heart,” his warbling tone keeps you enraptured. While it is an Iggy Pop album, there is absolutely no mistaking his collaborators. Josh Homme in particular is always easy to pick out vocally, and there is an air of Queens of the Stone Age throughout. The combination of these is so staggeringly fun, sometimes you fail to notice some of the darker tones of the album. Most of the heaviness lies within the lyrics, as it should. In example, the track “Vulture” is morbidly comical with a Spanish guitar line that at first listen enlists chuckles, at second makes you a little worried about Iggy as he sings about a vulture waiting on the side of the road, eating presumably carrion. “American Valhalla” is particularly excellent due to strange and wonderful warbling set to thick bass, chatty guitar, and playful drums, ending with some sad repetition, and “Gardenia” is nigh ethereal in composition and definitely sexy in a smutty way. The albums closer, “Paraguay,” wraps the experience in a nice little bow with more Spanish guitar, a super hooky chorus and bridge, and aggressive commentary declaring a desire a vacation “to somewhere where people are still human beings,” and disgust over technology drones.
Moody, fun, and damn brilliant, Post Pop Depression is, without a doubt, perfect and exactly what the listeners needed. Iggy’s album is completely refreshing. While words are all well and good, they cannot express how exciting, how melancholy, and how radical the music is. Put this in your music library. Immediately.
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